1) The A.A.A. has already assisted online voting successfully for a number
of organizations, including a large, dispersed trade union.
2) The A.A.A. does not have computer programs of its own for this, but has
assisted the organizations which it helped to write their own.
3) The function of the A.A.A. has been to supervise and authenticate the
procedure, much as U.N. inspectors supervise voting in politically unstable
countries (an apt parallel, don't you think?).
4) The most important and difficult task, according to Mr. Egger, is the
authentication of the identity of the voters, in particular the legal
identity of their name with a postal address. I suggested that this might be
replaced by digital authentication procedures; Mr. Egger remained skeptical.
(There was not much problem in the previous cases of online voting because
all the members were known.) Mr. Egger suggested that perhaps the postal
service could be used for identity checking, but then why not use it for
voting as well?
5) I explained that there was a very great time constraint in the present
situation, and that the DNSO could not possibly write its own voting program
in so short a space of time. He said that he will query the organizations
that have already done online voting to see if they would "lend" us their
programs.
6) I asked what A.A.A.'s fees for supervising the procedure would be, but he
refused to commit himself.
7) He should get back to me tomorrow or the next day.